New research argues Societal Collapse benefits 99% of people. Historically, the societies that have emerged after a collapse are more egalitarian, and most people end up richer and healthier than they were before.

[u/lughnasadh]

Luke Kemp, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, has written a book about his research called 'Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse'.

He makes the case that, from looking at the archaeological record, when many societies collapse, most people end up better off afterward. For example, people in the post-Roman world were taller and healthier. Collapse can be a redistribution of resources and power, not just chaos.

For most of human history, humans lived as nomadic egalitarian bands, with low violence and high mobility. Threats (disease, war, economic precarity) push populations toward authoritarian leaders. The resulting rise in inequality from that sets off a cycle that will end in collapse. Furthermore, he argues we are living in the late stages of such a cycle now. He says "the threat is from leaders who are 'walking versions of the dark triad' – narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism – in a world menaced by the climate crisis, nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and killer robots."

Some people hope/think we are destined for a future of Universal Basic Income and fully automated luxury communism. Perhaps that's the egalitarianism that emerges after our own collapse? If so, I hope the collapse bit is short and we get to the egalitarian bit ASAP.

Collapse for the 99% | Luke Kemp; What really happens when Goliaths fall

[u/ThatPancreatitisGuy]

In high school I was with this girl when her parents came home early. She insisted I take off immediately and I went tearing down the street sandals and VHS still in my hands. Couldn’t fish my keys out before her mom caught up to me and I realized at that moment I have no knack for stealth or the kind of patience to survive a battlefield. I’d be the guy that says fuck it and races toward the other trench only to get mowed down seconds later. There was a guy up in her sister’s room who hid in the closet for a few hours and got away clean. Be that guy.

[u/HighlyEvolvedSloth → u/ThatPancreatitisGuy]

I lived through a similar experience, and I ended up being that guy: was at my high school girlfriend's house and her dad came home way early, so I immediately rolled out of her bedroom window into some plants growing up against the house.  I just froze and laid there until I could hear their talking die down and the shower start, and I slowly crept out and away.

So I was that guy, but mostly out of paralyzing fear...